Sometimes abandoning a fort isn’t always the best option when engaged in a heated war, for the enemy may take refuge in what was once your battle station. In the case of the ongoing culture war for ethics and freedom of expression between #GamerGate and the corrupt media, the denizens of #GamerGate who populate the Kotaku in Action sub-Reddit have managed to get their hands on two very vital pieces of social media property.

Over on Kotaku in Action – the Reddit home for all things #GamerGate – a certain AntonioOfVenice managed to get his hands on the /r/Polygon sub-Reddit. A forum that was once dedicated to all things Polygon – a gaming media subsidiary under the Vox Media label – is now going to become a propaganda machine working against the better interests of Polygon (unless those interests reside in ethical reporting and objective industry insight).

Antonio writes in the opening of the post…

“Remember how proud the SJWs were that they hijacked /r/Gamergate? Well, now we have /r/Polygon. It had only one moderator, an employee of Polygon, last active a year ago. If you forget about your Reddit account modding a subreddit, you’re going to have a bad time.”

A bad time indeed. The post has garnered massive support from the Kotaku in Action community – a community that has become stronger and sturdier over the past year as they fight back against a media industry they feel have been unjust in their coverage of the video game industry and unethical in their behavior as journalists.

Antonio required the services of some fellow Kotaku in Action residents to help mod the new forum, and things are now up and running as the new #GamerGate approved /r/Polygon will provide users with insight and wisdom into the inner workings on f the gaming website.

In addition to this, user theone899 also managed to get his hands on the /r/Gawker sub-Reddit. A seemingly impossible feat looking from the outside in, but it has happened. As mentioned on the post over on Kotaku in Action, theone899 writes…

“With permission of the head mod there, I’ve been given much more control of the sub (full permissions); essentially, he has said that I can lead the direction of the sub without interference (so, I’ll need some help in mod positions..)”

So what are the plans of the people who have been slandered and defamed for the past year by one of the biggest online media organizations in existence? Well, YouTuber ninjachannel seems to capture the intentions of the consumers battling under the GamerGate hashtag with a quick 13 second video.

If you’ve been on the receiving end of some mistreatment by Gawker, feel free to post your story over on /r/Gawker. If you have some damning evidence or stories to share of those who work at Polygon, feel free to post them over on /r/Polygon.

There’s certain criteria for Reddit that make a place “abandoned” which basically means someone else can have it. Also, if someone hands over mod control, they have in essence “captured” it as well. Lovely system.

Fenrir007

Like I said in Reddit, this is definitely not unethical, as the subs were completely abandoned by their mod team and the takeover is in accordance to Reddit’s laws. In truth, such a thing exists both to prevent people from subreddit squatting and making a huge collection to later sell it or trade it when interest in it arises, or keep hogging a subreddit for something that has a lot of public interest but never manages said community.

There is also no expectation that a certain subreddit about a company will be crewed by staffers from it. A random user could make a subreddit named EA and Eletronic Arts would have no right to complain about it. Hell, depending on the purpose of the subreddit, it could be pretty damn unethical to have it staffed by employees of the company that lends it its name.
This was basically a vacant lot. We occupied it, and we are building ethics there. Deal with it.

Hah! Excellent news, but does anyone else feel now that we’re heading into the end phase of GG’s goals? The war seems to be over and this is just mopping up the last places where they cling on for dear life.

Even the general gaming public who kept out of this have seen how corrupt Kotaku, RPS, Destructoid, Polygon and so are. They’ve become almost fringe gaming sites while companies that did something about it are doing vastly better. Ign’s and other aligned sites numbers seem to of swelled massively since their policy changes and youtubers are destroying these guys.

Case in point, choosing a game review randomly from last year, South Park stick of truth. The gamespot review on youtube by social justice warrior Kevin Van Ord got 102,132 views (he downmarked the game as it hurt his SJW values), total biscuit got 644,530 (while on massively diminished output due to cancer) and Angry joe got 2,169,503. Two guys operating from their houses pulled in 6x and 20x the views than a ‘professional’ SJW reviewer.

Seems like for the ones outside of GG the partys over. Though they still think GG lost.

Fenrir007

GG will never be over. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

TheGreatGamerGod

You’re right, also it’s possible that perhaps like Kuchera they’ve skulked off to the shadows for a regroup.